An automotive battery for use in a motor vehicle may cause great damages to the motor vehicle in which the battery is situated in case of battery failure. This is particularly evident in the case of a vehicle crash or accident where severe vehicle damages and even passenger injuries may arise due to high magnitude short-cut currents causing vehicle fire. Further damaging battery failure situations include high-magnitude currents in surrounding conducting structures of the vehicle, e.g. short-cut currents, forming of gas in Lithium-ion batteries and damaged mechanical and/or electronic components which in its turn could cause vehicle breakdown and ultimately a vehicle crash.
International patent application WO 2009/106394 discloses a battery pack for use in a motor vehicle having a plurality of battery modules which individually can be disconnected and/or bridged in the event of a fault in one or more of the battery modules, in order to make it possible to preclude a destructive chain reaction within a battery pack.
A further problem that may arise in prior art automotive batteries is that a faulty battery module may cause high short-cut currents and arcing may occur between conductors in the automotive battery causing damages and even fires.